Mein 99. Ärzte-Konzert. Zugegeben, ich hatte nicht erwartet, die 100 Konzerte irgendwann vollzukriegen – einerseits, weil es ja nie sicher war, ob DÄ nochmal auf Tour gehen, anderseits, weil sie mich einfach nicht mehr wirklich interessieren …
Als dann die Miles&More-Tour angekündigt wurde (einmal rund in Europa, aber natürlich nicht nach Skandinavien … *grmbl*) schlug dann natürlich doch ein wenig die Gewohnheit zu – man muss ja zumindest mal gucken, ob man ein Ticket ergattern kann. 😉 Insbesondere, wenn das Konzert in London an einem langen Wochenende liegt. Gesagt, getan, und mit genügend Konzertjunkie-Erfahrung auch kein großer Stress beim Ticketkauf (auch wenn die Portokosten jenseits von gut und böse waren). Und in der Vorbereitung auf den Trip dann auch noch die Erkenntnis, dass am gleichen Wochenende noch Camden Rocks stattfindet und man das ja auch noch mitnehmen kann. Yay!
Um es kurz zu machen: Das Ärzte-Konzert hat Spaß gemacht. Camden Rocks hat noch viel mehr Spaß gemacht. 😉
Aber doch, ja, ich war positiv überrascht. Meine großen Fan-Zeiten sind definitiv vorbei und ich würde mir jetzt nicht sofort nochmal ein Ärzte-Konzert angucken wollen, aber mein 100. wird wohl doch noch irgendwann stattfinden.
Ich hatte nicht vor, einen Bericht zu schreiben (und tue es eigentlich nur, weil ich schließlich schon 98 Berichte vorher geschrieben habe), daher habe ich mir nichts gemerkt. Aber es war die typische Altherren-Blödelei auf der Bühne, gemischt mit “woah, wir sind tatsächlich in London”, und die ganzen alten Lieder, die ich seit 2013 nicht mehr gehört habe. Und das war definitiv cool!
Weniger cool war das Publikum. Ich stand wie immer vorne links – um mich rum ein paar typische Fans, die begeistert waren und Spaß hatten, direkt neben mir eine Gruppe, der das Konzert relativ wuppe war, die aber dafür umso besorgter waren, wie man denn bei dem Gedränge neues Bier holen soll, und auf der anderen Seite eine Dame, die der Meinung war, dass hier in London im Gegensatz zu Deutschland ja nur “Gesocks” auf Konzerten sind, die einen nicht mal durchlassen. Nun ja, zwei Minuten vorher bin ich genau denselben Weg durchgelaufen, wurde überall problemlos durchgelassen, und von dem ganzen Gesocks habe ich keinen einzigen Englisch sprechen hören …
Nun ja, Ärzte-Fans halt. *ähem*
Also insgesamt ein tolles Konzert, nervige Elite-Fans, aber insgesamt ein netter Abend. Und am Wochenende danach ein Haufen wundervoller Club-Konzerte mit ganz vielen Neuentdeckungen – und damit ein voll und ganz gelungener Kurzurlaub in London!
I haven’t written any concert reports here for ages – mostly because that even though I’ve seen some nice concerts in the last couple of months, there weren’t really any surprises, any of those concerts where you leave with a huge smile and know that you’ve just seen something really special. (And you want to see it again and again and again, at least if you are a concert junkie.)
A few months ago, System of a Down announced a new tour. I’ve seen them at some festivals, but never at a “real” concert. They didn’t announce any concerts for Norway though … so if I wanted to see them, I knew I had to travel. First option for me would be Germany of course – but hmm. Huge arenas? Do I really want that? Or, if it has to be huge, should I maybe go all the way and see them at the Wembley Arena in London??
Well, after checking the dates it turned out that the London concert was on the same weekend as the WWE, so that meant it was time for my annual London trip anyway, yay! 😀 Said and done: a long weekend in London, started by a System of a Down concert!
Getting tickets was a bit tricky, but thanks to AXS (Ticketmaster sucks big time!) I even got a standing ticket. I had expected barriers and different sections, so I got to the arena early to make sure I got a good place in the back of the first section, but … no sections. One gigantic floor without any barriers. 😮
But: it worked. Yes, it was crowded. Yes, it was sweaty. Yes, I got a few more elbows into the ribs than I would have hoped for. But it was SO worth it!
The atmosphere was just awesome – I hadn’t really expected that when I first got in, because the arena was way less impressive and “special” than one might think. It’s just a huge all-purpose hall … (But then, to be honest, how else should a concert hall look?) It filled up rather slowly, and there was no support band.
But when SoaD came on, it was awesome right from the start. Everybody was into it, the audience was great (meaning: people took care of one another, nobody shot angry looks at those that dared to MOVE to the music, no couples tried to discuss their relationship while the concert was going on, no one was busy taking selfies with their iPad, but everyone was enjoying the concert). In the quiet parts, the audience’s singing was incredibly loud, and then everyone was back to dancing (but without suddenly running amok and kicking and hitting everyone who happened to be too close). Just awesome!
I can’t give a setlist or even attempt to list songs – I knew almost all of them, but I have no idea what the songs are called. As I mentioned, I’ve seen some SoaD gigs at festivals before, and while those were good, I always concluded that they are just not a great live band. I take that back. Fully and completely! The setlist was perfect – tight and without breaks, one song after the other, right until the audience just couldn’t go anymore. And then it was time for a slow part or a little video break. For two hours. And after that, everyone was drenched in sweat (at least everyone on the floor) and beaming with joy. The latter not only those on the floor! 😀
I honestly don’t know if it was System of a Down or London who made this concert so so great. But it was perfect. It’s been quite a while since the last concert that got me so excited. And it’s been forever since I last took off my watch during a concert, and ended up with bruises and sore muscles. It’s been too long. Way too long. This was the kind of concert that made me a concert junkie.
Thank you, System of a Down. And thank you, London! 😀
Yep, Fozzy blew me away the first three times I got to see them. So I was more than happy when they announced the dates for their European tour – I had a week of vacation in London planned, with WWE events on Monday and Tuesday and a Kaizers Orchestra concert on Thursday. Fozzy announced their London gig for Wednesday – YAY!
I convinced some friends to come along; however, it turned out that they were too exhausted from sightseeing or got stuck in the Tube chaos that day, so I ended up going to the concert on my own. Which is something I’m used to, so I didn’t mind – but I really missed being able to share my “waaaaaaah!” feeling with someone afterwards.
The concert was just AWESOME! I arrived when Revoker were playing already, and the venue was packed. However, it filled up even more until Fozzy came on, and it seemed that most people in the audience where there for Fozzy. And – quite surprisingly actually, since WWE had been in town two nights before – it didn’t seem like a wrestling crowd, but there were much more Fozzy shirts than Y2J shirts. Good sign! And yep, you noticed it throughout the concert: People knew the songs and were singing along, there were no Y2J chants and no “Fandangoing” =;-), and people were REALLY into the concert.
The crowd was great – headbanging, fists in the air, Fozzy chants, all right from the beginning. Especially during the song “Enemy” the crowd was really loud, and we had to sing the chorus once more afterwards, without the band playing, which sounded amazing. “I think we should start a London chant now – that was fucking great!” – yes, it was! Right after, Jericho wondered if he shouldn’t just stay in London – “Can I crash in someone’s basement? Yes? Is you mom okay with it?”
So all in all, a fantastic show in front of a very enthusiastic crowd! It was sold out as well, and Fozzy definitely had their fans there, not everyone cared for Drowning Pool. Of course I stayed for their show as well, and it seemed that their fans were just as if not more enthusiastic, but their songs just aren’t that catchy in my opinion. Great show as well, but Fozzy definitely topped the bill. And they left me wanting more …
The setlist:
Spider in my mouth
Sandpaper
Pray for blood
Inside my head
She’s my addiction
God pounds his nails
Shine forever
Whitechapel / To kill a stranger
Sin and bones
Martyr no more
Enemy
Blood happens
The next step towards world domination: Kaizers Orchestra take over London! And the fans are all coming along … =;-)
For me, that meant a week in London, filled up with lots of action – sightseeing in bright sunshine every day at daytime, and at night we went out to the O2 arena and some concerts. Yay! Quite exhausting actually, but a great vacation. Kaizers really picked the perfect week for their trip to London.
Finally it was Thursday and thus the day of the concert! After an extensive Vorspiel at our flat (where we – amongst other things – found out that both ladles and tea strainers are perfectly suited to fill up small bags of confetti *g*), we got on our way to the legendary KOKO. Just before the doors opened, there was quite a queue there, and right from the beginning it was obvious that there was only a small percentage of British fans in the audience. You heard mostly Norwegian everywhere – okay, with a bit of German blended in, and yes, of course also some English. =;-) But during the concert it was totally clear that most of the audience consisted of fans that had traveled to London to see the show. On the one hand, that meant of course that Kaizers probably did not win over any new fans or “conquered England” with this concert, but then: what other band manages to fill up a venue of 1500 people somewhere abroad? For most bands, it’s only a handful of “hardcore fans” that travel abroad for shows. So wow, that was definitely impressive!
Kaizers were supported by the Scottish singer Siobhan Wilson. Honestly, nobody really seemed to care or listen – I have to admit that I didn’t either. But then, I was still busy handing out the last packages. =;-) And of course admiring the venue – as if it was made for Kaizers! It seemed like an old opera theater, with galleries and boxes, three or four tiers, red velvet everywhere … just beautiful.
At 9:00 pm, the lights went out and the Russian Dance came on. It got more and more crowded in the front – and in my opinion, too crowded and a bit uncomfortable. That’s the problem if a venue is filled up with fans and fans only – everyone wants to be in the front. And where I was standing, we got regularly showered with beer from the galleries above … which means that I’ve definitely experienced more comfortable concerts. =;-)
It was obvious right from the beginning that this would be a legendary show – the atmosphere was indescribable, the audience incredibly loud, and EVERYONE was into the concert. Not like it usually is, that half of the audience is there for the party only. So considering the audience, this was a very good “Norwegian” concert with a very enthusiastic audience. But in London!
The Jackal mentioned a few times that this was the “first and last Kaizers concert in London”. Apart from that, there wasn’t really much talk at all – maybe because Kaizers just didn’t know what language to use? The poll in the beginning showed that there were about 100 people in the audience that did not understand Norwegian. Still, the Jackal switched to talking Norwegian after asking that. At least part of the time – I gotta admit, by that time I had been in England together with a group of Norwegians for five days; so I don’t have the slightest clue when he was talking English and when Norwegian. *g* But as I mentioned, there really wasn’t that much talking anyway. I would assume that this was due to the fact that KOKO had a strict curfew at 11, and even without talking, Kaizers easily played the two hours.
The setlist was pretty much standard: Aldri vodka Violeta, Siste dans, Tusen dråper regn, Din kjole lukter bensin mor, En for orgelet en for meg, Ompa til du dør, Bøn fra helvete, Det polaroide liv, Sigøynerblod, Forloveren, Støv og sand, KGB, I ett med verden, Kontroll på kontinentet, Philemon Arthur & the Dung, Svarte katter & flosshatter, Hjerteknuser, Maestro. Encores Begravelsespolka, Bak et halleluja, and Die Polizei.
Right from the beginning, they made eager use of the barrels (even though some guitarist had to be encouraged – “Get your ass up there!”), the audience was singing along loudly (very impressive at the end of Din kjole lukter bensin), and quite early on in the show, we got a “Say halleluja! Say save me Kaizer! Say PLEASE save me Kaizer!” part. During Philemon Arthur, the Jackal seemed like a priest, standing in front of the crowd with his arms spread – so impressive! And they celebrated the break in Svarte katter for very very long again, which was also absolutely awesome. Or, to use the Jackal’s words: “Watch out West End, here we come!”
Oh yes, and then there was Forloveren =:-D – and there was confetti in the air …:
Thanks a lot to Linda for the video! And if somebody accidentally filmed this song as well, maybe even from the galleries, let me know! *g*
As encores, we first got the Begravelsespolka – what was quite surprising by the way was that the Jackal was not wearing a tuxedo and later a red shirt on stage, but the “normal” suit like on the European tour. Which of course didn’t hurt the atmosphere though. =;-) Next up was Bak et halleluja – even though originally, they had probably planned to play Dieter Meyers Inst. And as very last song, they played Die Polizei because “You were a fantastic audience; you must all be Norwegians!”. And the song worked perfectly as conclusion of the concert … and after Kaizers went off stage for good, the audience kept singing for quite a while. Awesome! =:-D
Unfortunately, there was no time for another encore, but the concert was fantastic as it was. Actually, it didn’t really mean that much that it was in London – but the audience was totally unique and special. The atmosphere was magical, and – if not before that – I’m sure there were a few tears falling during Die Polizei …
DE
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